At the Ben Lomond mountains in the northern Midlands of Tasmania is M.J. Bale’s elite woolgrowing partner, Kingston farm. And just over the fence from Kingston? Well, that would be Patterdale, the woolgrowing enterprise and former home of one of the great pre-Impressionist landscape painters, John Glover.

Born in England in 1767 and already an accomplished artist, having exhibited in Paris in 1814 and gained the attention of Louis XVIII, Glover emigrated to Tasmania in 1831. He followed his three sons to Van Diemen’s Land and had secured land by trading his artwork (the original ‘contra’) for £300.

With his wife and another son, John, he moved to what would become ‘Patterdale’ farm, located along the Nile River at the foot of the Ben Lomond mountain. Based at Patterdale, Glover’s output was prolific. By 1835 he had painted enough to send 68 paintings via boat back to London for exhibition. But who needs London when you have The Launceston Mechanics Institute? They put on a show for him in 1847 before he died two years later.

Introduced to the work of John Glover by Kingston farmer Simon Cameron, here at M.J. Bale, we’ve long admired Glover’s work for his sparse but haunting use of colour and romantic impressions of the landscape, which brings out the Tasmanian northern Midlands that we know and love. You can tell Glover was inspired by the landscape and sought to bring out all its fresh, raw, natural beauty, no matter how rugged. As the artist himself pointed out, “there is a remarkable peculiarity in the Trees of this Country; however numerous they rarely prevent you tracing through them the whole distant country”.

Today the Glover Prize is one of the foremost art prizes of the country.

Patterdale, to this day, remains. It is run by the indefatigable Carol Westmore, who purchased the estate in 2004 and has returned it to its former glory, or as close to what John Glover saw and painted as possible.

Oh, and Patterdale runs superfine Merino sheep. As they say, it’s all in the neighbourhood.

https://www.johnglover.com.au